Beyond Justice

3.5 stars
Well, now, there's an enjoyable legal thriller! I had a very hard time putting this one aside in order to do other things, and it kept gathering steam like a train down a sloped track, so I read all the way to 1 am to finish it! Hayden and Andrew are both really enjoyable characters, and even the legalese is written in a way that is fairly easy to follow. (No simple matter, for those who don't follow federal legal processes to be comfortable reading details of such a case!)

My main gripe is in the details. Many brands are mentioned, and in some cases it helps bring the scene to life. But there were a number of instances where the improper use of details really pulled me out of the story and even had me popping over to Google a couple times to fact-check (something that should have been done by Putman's editor.) Here are some details that jumped out at me:
-Using a Lysol wipe on one's hands is against labeled directions and leaves the hands feeling sticky—not what most artists want to work with.
-Flights from DC to Waco take 4-5 hours, not two, and most flights have a connection in DFW rather than being direct.
-One hour outside Waco is not desert. It's grassland.
-White Castle is not a Texas thing.
-Brake lines being cut don't result in the wheels continuing to turn despite the gas pedal not being depressed.
-Hayden is surprised to see deer on a metro Virginia median? Happens all the time.
-Having the police blame a gunshot to a car on a “hunter missing a shot” in February in the city is a big stretch. Hunting seasons end by January, and it's illegal to hunt within city limits or park limits. Such a shooter would be termed a “poacher” and it would not be dismissed out of hand.

Without all those details being amiss, I probably would have rated it higher because I'd have been all the more absorbed in the story.

Word usage: blonde/blond (both spellings used to describe a woman's hair; not consistent), discrete used for “discreet” (-ete = separate, distinct; -eet = careful, not drawing attention to)

Thanks to NetGalley for a free review copy. A favorable review was not required.